The Alt-Right in Pearls: Milo Yiannopoulos talks with Bill Maher

Self proclaimed “Troll” of the Right, Milo Yiannopoulos had a one on one interview on Bill Maher’s show last night. Despite the expected cheap shots for cheap laughs at women and gay people, there was a substantive discussion about free speech and the nature and usefulness of humor. Here are some excerpts from the show which began like this:

Bill: “I think you’re colossally wrong on a number of things, but if I banned everyone from my show who I thought was colossally wrong I would be talking to myself.”

Trolling & Triggering:

Bill: “You say you don’t hire gay people?”

Milo: “Oh no they don’t show up to work on time. Too much drugs, too much sex, don’t show up to work on time, always making excuses, no no no, but they aren’t as bad as women.”

Audience: “Ohhhhh.”

M: “Oh there we go, just kidding. You’re so easily triggered it’s pathetic.”

B: “Let’s start with that.. because I know gay people who do show up to work.”

M: “Yeah, Hookers.”

Audience: “Ohhhhh”

B: “That is the reaction.. you are so, let’s say helped by the fact that liberals always take the bait.”

M: “Of course.”

Hurting Feelings:

M: “I hurt people for a reason, I like to think of myself as a virtuous troll.”

M: “The reason they want to police humor.. is that they can’t control it. The one thing authoritarians hate is the sound of laughter because they can’t Control what people find funny.”

M: “When people laugh they know it’s true, because laughter is involuntary. When you laugh, even if you don’t really agree in that part of your mind you’re like “ohh shit” maybe..”

M: “Humor isn’t how you drive people apart, policing humor for racism and sexism is utterly wrongheaded, not because it just isn’t normally there, but because that’s how we build bridges not how we break them. When you make a joke, that’s how you connect with somebody.. humor is what brings people together not what drives them apart. and these basic fundamental human psychological insights the progressive left has forgotten.”

B: “The one area I’m a little concerned is were you go after people individually.. like I didn’t understand the ghostbusters thing.. I mean first of all who gives a fuck about ghostbusters.”

M: “I wrote a bad review of the movie am I not entitled to do that. I said she looks like a dude, she does. I said she’s barely literate, she is… You’ve just got to accept that mean words on the internet don’t hurt anyone. What actually hurts people is what happens in the real world”.

Milo, Not Showing up, and Trump:

B: “You’re a little broken and you’re very wrong about certain things: like black lives matter is a hate group, and that there is no such thing as white privilege, I mean you know that’s wrong.”

M: “We can agree to disagree on those things and that’s wonderful. The one thing we can agree on with that silly man who refused to come on the show.. is that if you don’t show up to the debate you lose.”

B: “And also stop taking the bait liberals, the fact that they all freaked out about this Jew, British, Impish Fag, you fucking schoolgirls… But you should get off the Trump train because for a guy who loves free speech, you picked a weird boyfriend.”